If a man was doing good in this world, why did I have to be so heavily protected?
I turned toward the guys in the room as they all grinned at us. The women of the room were leaning against the kitchen counter, smiles trickling across their cheeks as I drew in a deep breath. This was it. This was the moment I picked my side.
And I still couldn’t believe what I had chosen.
“I want to help you guys figure this out,” I said. “Fox is the first man to come into my life who’s been upfront about everything. And I know how ironic that sounds, given what he’s hidden from you guys. But Fox being honest about my predicament with this… gang or whatever… is more than I can say for what my father gave me over the years. I built him up as a hero. As a man who was swooping in and saving those that society had already cast out. But then there were moments where he became overprotective. So much so that I needed private bodyguards and background checks on my new friends. If my father was doing good, why would all of that be necessary?”
“It wouldn’t be,” Mac said.
“Exactly. I’m gonna tell you guys what I told Fox this afternoon. Well, a truncated version of it. I had lunch with my father today, and he was off. Not his usual, bubbly self. And when I asked him about the case he was currently working, not only was he dodgy and shady about it, he said he had to use tactics to ‘side-step’ some things.”
“Side-step?” Hawk asked. “How so?”
“He didn’t say it in so many words, but I got the impression he was trying to throw another gang under the bus. My father said something about circumstantial evidence and how it wasn’t enough, and that’s when he mentioned the side-stepping thing. If my father is the one defending this club… what are they called?”
“The Devil’s Saints,” Talon said.
“Okay. Them. If my father’s defending them, and you guys have a lot of history, then it makes me wonder if my father isn’t trying to pin something on you guys,” I said.
“Given what happened, it would make sense,” Snake said.
“What happened?” I asked.
The guys looked back at Fox as his hand fell to my hip.
“I’ll fill you in on it later,” Fox said.
“You think that’s smart?”
One of the women from the kitchen piped up. A thicker girl in a police uniform. I was slightly taken back that there was a police officer here but seeing her made me feel even better about my decision.
She must’ve been their connection inside the police force.
“Harlow, that’s Laiken. Snake’s girl,” Fox said.
“Fiancé,” Laiken said.
“Congratulations,” I said with a smile.
“Eh, somedays,” Laiken said with a grin.
“And yes, I think it’s smart. If she’s gonna help us, then she has to know the whole story. But we can talk about that later,” Fox said.
“We’ll discuss that at a later date,” Mac said. “Not sure if I can trust your judgment right now.”
“Mac, if she’s gon-”
I allowed my hand to drift over his and I squeezed it tightly. Their mistrust of him was understandable. Even though I knew it hurt Fox, we had to let them sift through this on their own time.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Just… go with it for a while,” I said.
“Would you be willing to testify?” Laiken asked.
Everyone’s eyes darted between her and I as my grip tightened around Fox’s hand.
“About what? I haven’t seen anything,” I said.
“You’ve experienced it. With your father. At lunch. What he told you and everything. An eyewitness account would plant a seed with the jury we could use to get him removed from the case,” Laiken said.
“Would he go to jail?” I asked. I didn’t want to be the one that would send my father to jail.
“If we can prove he’s been actively covering for a criminal group, yes. But right now, that’s not our main concern. We just have to get him removed from The Devil’s Saints so the DEA can pursue them and take them down without him screwing things up,” Laiken said.
I looked around the room, my breath coming in shallow pants. This was happening. This was what my father was doing. I was well aware of our family history. What my grandfather and great-grandfather had gotten into. But my father promised me it was over. He had taken my hands as a little girl, looked me in my eyes, and told me he was better than them. That he was doing better than them. That he was single-handedly repairing our family’s reputation.
But then, there was his insistence that I do not go into law. Even after I read all of his books in his office and talked with him intelligently about his cases, he still pushed me to do something else. Anything else. Insistent to the point of falling apart, almost.
Then there were the meetings at three in the morning. He claimed he was doing overseas business, but now I wasn’t so sure. There were days when he would come home from work pale and wide-eyed. Claiming it was stress even though my mother was holding back tears. The bodyguards and the private investigators. The extreme security measures in the house and his need to keep me at his side whenever he could. At that moment, I realized everything my father told me was a lie.
“He promised me,” I said in a whisper.
I felt Fox’s arms snake around my waist as he pulled me close to his body. I was shaking as the pieces began to fall into place. All these things that had been off about my childhood, but I’d been too scared to ask about. All these things I had pushed off to the side and ignored in favor of painting my father in the best light. It was easier that way. It was easier to view him as a hero than as just another corrupt man in my family.
I had no idea what to think any longer.
A crashing sound pulled me from my thoughts, and the room erupted into chaos. The men were scattering, and Fox picked me up and ran me back into his room. Gunshots were ringing out, bouncing off the walls of the lodge and shattering windows all around us. I screamed in terror as Fox shoved me into his private bathroom, his hands cupping my face as I crouched down into the tub.
“Stay here,” he said. “Don’t fucking move for anything.”
Then, in a flash, he was gone. Leaving me in the pitch black bathroom to cry silently to myself.
Chapter 25
Fox
I slammed my bedroom door behind me as Sydney and Gemma ran off to Hawk’s room. Snake tossed Laiken a weapon as the six of us perched at the windows. We heard the rumbling of motorcycles cresting the hill, holding the bodies of Devil’s Saints members.
But that wasn’t who was shooting at the lodge.
“Holy shit,” I said.
“Is that who I think it is?” Mac asked.
I turned my face towards my friend, my eyes dripping with sorrow as another gunshot rang out.
“I gotta call this in,” Laiken said.
“We got this. We can handle this,” Snake said.
“If I’m here and I don’t call this in, they’ll know I’m helping you guys. My patrol car’s here. I can say I was out doing some legal surveillance and shit went down. I started shooting at the guys shooting first, and that’s that,” Laiken said.
“Fine. Call it in,” Snake said. “But keep your ass close. You hear me?”
The Devil’s Saints parked their bikes and drew their weapons. They stood beside members of the KG9’s as they continued to unload their weapons into our compound. Laiken was shouting orders into a radio that was on a nearby table, and I heard her call for backup. We were instructed to only shoot if we felt someone was aiming for us, so not many of us popped off rounds as we stood at the window.
“I should’ve left a weapon with Harlow,” I said as I crouched down beneath the window.
“If she doesn’t know how to use it, it does her no good,” Mac said.
I closed my eyes as Laiken continued to rattle shit off. Snake was popping off a few rounds along with Talon, trying to pull their fire away from the back of the building. If somethin
g happened to those women, I’d never be able to forgive myself. We could easily take The Devil’s Saints. Pop them off and be done with it. But coupled with the automatic manpower the KG9’s had and we were fucking sunk.
Gunshots fired through the window above my head. I stood up and shot, covering Mac as I did so. I could hear Emery crying and Syd’s desperate pleas to calm her down, but what scared me was that I didn’t hear Harlow.
I heard Laiken shouting orders, Syd and Gemma talking, but I couldn’t hear Harlow at all.
“Laiken! We gotta fire back! Drawing their fire isn’t gonna do us a damn bit of good if they’ve got more ammo than us. We gotta take them out,” Hawk said.
“No! No one’s dying today,” Laiken said.
“Except the fucking women we’ve got stashed in the back,” I said.
“Then you should’ve thought about that, shouldn’t you?” Laiken asked.
Fucking hell. I cursed underneath my breath as Talon and I continued to skirt the edge of the lodge. As long as we could draw their fire to the front of the building, the civilians we loved in the back would be safe. But this was my mess I had to clean up. It was my fault the KG9’s were on our turf right now shooting at us. It was my fault for giving The Devil’s Saints someone to team up with. I wanted to take every single one of them out. Watch them bleed out on the side of the road for ambushing us like this.
Then, in a heartbeat, it was silent outside.
There were no more gunshots and no more splintering wood. No more crying and no more screaming. No more crashing windows and no more cocking guns.
I looked over at Laiken as she furrowed her brow in confusion.
“Laiken?” I asked in a whisper. “The fuck’s going on?”
But I didn’t have to wait for her answer to figure out what.
The front door of the lodge burst open as Beast walked through the threshold. He was holding an AR-15, ready to decimate us at a moment’s notice. Calais was beside him, grinning deviously as his eyes locked onto mine. I gripped tightly onto my gun, ready to take them out at a moment’s notice.
But Laiken lifted her hand, signaling me to stand down.
Was she fucking crazy?
“Quit being scared little fucking pussies!” Beast exclaimed. “Come face me like the men you claim to be!”
Everyone was pretty well hidden, and Syd had somehow managed to calm Gemma down in the back. I still didn’t hear Harlow, but now it was a grace rather than a worry. Laiken was between the fridge, and the wall and Mac was down behind the couch. I was in the shadows, poised right in front of them as they looked around the room. I had no fucking idea where anyone else was, and I didn’t care.
I had a straight shot right into Calais’ chest, and I raised my gun to my side to take aim.
I could feel Laiken’s eyes on me, begging me to stand down. She was shaking her head and trying to get my attention, but I knew where they were headed next. Any idiot could tell we were trying to draw their fire away from the back of the building, and Beast hadn’t been elected President of the most ruthless biker gang for no fucking reason. He knew we had people we cared about.
And just like I thought, the two of them started making their way to the back rooms.
Where Syd, Emery, Gemma, and Harlow were stashed.
My eyes connected with Laiken as I rose my gun into the air. She was shaking her head violently, ready to step out from the shadows and throw herself to the dogs. I was having a very serious talk with her after this shit was over. Once I put a bullet between the eyes of Beast and Calais, I was going to figure out why the fuck she was willing to sacrifice the people we loved to fuel her own fucking agenda.
Then, I heard sirens wailing outside.
I expected the sirens to spook Beast and Calais, but it didn’t stop them in their tracks. All it did was make them speed up their antics. They went from strutting with pride to striding across the room, and I held my ground for as long as I could. Mac was ready to pop out from behind the couch and spotted Talon in the darkness, and I could tell he was getting uneasy. Hawk came out from behind the front door, his eyes wide as he looked over at me.
I couldn’t let him go down like that. He had a wife and a kid to take care of.
I watched Beast’s hand come down on my doorknob as the sirens got closer. Fuck this shit. I couldn’t wait any longer.
I jumped out from the shadows, aiming my gun at the back of Beast’s head. Calais turned around, his eyes connecting with mine as I readied my weapon for action.
Then the gunshots started up again as I fired at both of them.
Chapter 26
Harlow
I was hunkered down in Fox’s bathtub, but I could hear a little girl crying in the next room. The gunshots were flying every which way, but the only thing I could focus on was the fear in that little girl’s voice. If she kept crying, they would come looking for us. They would find us, and they would kill us, and there would be nothing any of the guys or that woman could do about it. I felt my heart slamming into my chest. The shattering glass caused me to yelp, forcing me to clamp my hand over my mouth. Tears were streaming down my cheeks as the gunfire began to move, no longer slamming into the bedroom so close to me.
But the little girl was still crying.
Without thinking, I slipped from the tub. The darkness was heavy, and I slowly inched the bathroom door open to see what was going on. Fox’s room was a mess. Holes in the mattress. Splintered glass all along the floor. There was a chair in the corner that looked more like a put-together toothpick than a chair. I could hear the muffled sounds of someone sniffling as soft voices wafted from just beyond Fox’s bedroom door.
Did I take that chance?
Did I try to go make sure they were okay?
I crawled on my hands and knees, biting down on my lower lip as my skin ran across bits of glass and shards of wood. I reached for the doorknob to the bedroom door and slowly inched it open as gunfire continued to ring out. People were shouting and scurrying about, and I could hear motorcycles revving heavily outside. But the hallway was dark and empty, so I took the chance.
I got to my feet and ran into the bedroom adjacent to me.
I shut the door behind me as the gunfire grew frantic again. I dove behind the bed, covering my head as I eyed the bathroom door. I could see it cracked open, just enough for me to peer inside and see some movement. There were two people in the bathroom, and I knew it had to be them. The woman with the kind smile who ushered me into Fox’s room in the first place and her little girl.
I sucked back my tears of fear as I crawled to the bathroom door. I inched it open and heard someone draw in a sharp breath. I knew they were scared. I knew this woman was probably getting ready to defend her child at all costs. If I wasn’t careful, she probably had something she could whack me over the head with.
So, I held up my hand and waved.
“What in the world are you doing?”
I felt someone grab my wrist before I slid into the bathroom. I reached back and kicked the door shut behind me as darkness encompassed the room. I could hear the little girl sniffling. I could hear her whimpering with fear. I got to my feet and stepped into the bathtub with the two of them, feeling someone small cuddle up to my leg.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” I said. “Everything’s gonna be all right.”
“Harlow, right?”
I looked up to where the voice was coming from and saw a pair of eyes staring back at me in the darkness.
“Yes,” I said. “What’s your name?”
“Sydney. Guys call me ‘Syd.’ This is Emery, Hawk’s daughter.”
“Which one’s Hawk?” I asked.
Gunshots rang out again in droves as we ducked into the tub. I threw my body over Emery while Syd threw her body over mine. I could feel her back heaving with sobs. She was latched onto her mother’s leg, tugging at her pants as I tried to comfort her and keep her quiet. We had to get her calmed down. If those men outside heard us, they would co
me for us and use us as leverage.
At least, that was how I thought it would work.
“Show you later,” Syd said with a whisper.
It seemed like the gunfire would never stop. The bedrooms were torn to shreds, and I was scared they would come back and fire off more bullets. There wasn’t much surface area to protect us any longer, which meant if they came back for a second round we stood a higher chance of getting hit. Emery was shaking beneath me as Syd began to crawl out of the bathroom, and I grabbed her hand to try and get her to stay.
“There’s a room with no windows in the very back. Way down the hallway. We gotta get down there. It’s the only way we’re gonna survive this,” Syd said.
I drew in a deep breath, trying to find the courage I had before. I gathered a shaking Emery in my arms as we started out of the bathroom, trying to keep low to avoid attention. Everything had fallen silent again, and no one was making a sound. I was peppering kisses along Emery’s cheeks, cooing in her ear to get her to calm down. Now more than ever, she needed to be quiet. She could cry during the gunfire because it covered her sounds, but when it was silent like this, she needed to settle herself down.
Otherwise, they would come for us.
We poked our heads out into the hallway as the eerie silence descended. At first, I thought it was over. Until I heard footsteps walking around outside. Sydney took my hand while I clung to Emery with all my strength and we darted down the hallway. Making our way into the darkness and stopped just shy of a door. We opened the door and got inside, locking it behind us before we sat on the bed.
The darkness in that room was thicker than I’d ever known darkness to be.
But we were safe.
I passed Emery over to her mother as I began to draw deep breaths. I wasn’t sure what to make of the silence, but something told me things weren’t over yet. I had been so preoccupied with Emery and her tears that I hadn’t noticed tears spilling down my own face. I fought the urge to sniffle as I drew in a shaky breath, trying to keep my wits about me as I wiped at my face. Where was Fox? And Emery’s father? And the rest of the guys? Shouldn’t they be calling for us? Telling us, it’s okay to come out. I felt my stomach rolling with nerves for the first time since I’d slipped from Fox’s room. I felt like I was going to vomit. Like I was going to pass out on this floor at any second.
Fox (The Road Rebels MC Book 4) Page 15